In this age of dwindling natural resources, specifically oil, natural gas and electricity, the heating of swimming pools has become a major expense and many people have been looking for an alternative fuel for heating such pools. Also, due to the poluting nature of fosil fuels state after state is outlawing the use of such fuels for the heating of swimming pools. A wood-fueled swimming pool heater is a possible answer for some areas due to the fact that wood is a renewable resource and also considered a non-poluting fuel. However, due to the extra effort required to provide wood-fuel for such a heater and also due to the extra effort expended to fuel such a heater, not to mention cost, a way is needed to extract the full BTU value of such wood-fuel and also to regulate automatically its combustion so that the pleasure of having such a wood heated pool is not diminished by a constant need to tend the heater.